Alex Hardy

A new website has been set up called The Blog Council. In the words of the site:

The Blog Council is the community for large companies’ blogs. It is a private group for this unique group of bloggers to share best practices and new ideas.

The response has been mixed. Greg Storey is right to question the wisdom of discussing an inherently public medium in private, but I think it’s a positive step.

If you blog about your cat that’s fine, but speaking on a professional level makes matters more complicated. You should maintain a dignified and constructive tone even if you only represent yourself. It’s not beneficial to rubbish others. It’s downright foolish to say disparaging things about your colleagues or company if you wish to remain employed now and in future.

I don’t speak for the Foundry, but I have a responsibility to them. As I show their work in my portfolio I am obliged to present it in an appropriate way. I should answer or refer questions, criticisms or employment inquiries that come to me. I should promote their work and activities in an honest way.

Working for a company whose sole preoccupation is the building of brands, I cannot ignore the marketing implications. The only thing more frightening to companies than being seen as behind the times would be to embarrass themselves. Sony have been busted time and again for trying to create artificial buzz around their products. Instead of improving your image, you earn widespread ridicule.

The internet alters the consumer’s relationship with the brand. The aspirational values (e.g. youth, cool, affluence, sexiness etc) that money and time have been spent to cultivate meet the reality of what people think of the company behind it.

Brand perception can no longer be just pushed at the audience through advertising channels when a bad review can sabotage a purchasing decision. This puts pressure on companies to be less aloof. You can’t silence public opinion, but you can change it by listening and improving your products, services and message.

If you blog directly on your company’s behalf, your responsibility is crucially important. You are an ambassador for your company. There are already good examples to be found: The IEBlog is candid, constructive and has engaged with high profile community members such as Molly Holzschlag.

I would hope that these private sessions will be few, and part of a first stage where the members of this new community compare notes before they open themselves out. Some things you can only learn how to do by doing them.

Posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 10:43 am under Marketing. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.